Travel to Pennsylvania

Backpacking Pennsylvania: 37 Great Hikes

Format: Paperback
Author: Jeff Mitchell
ReleaseDate: January, 2005
Publisher: Stackpole Books
Rating:

A+ for Jeff
37 major trails are described and made accessible to the the Pennsylvania Backpacker. Backpacking Pennsylvania does exactly the job the title leads you to believe it will do.

Each trail narrative is preceded by a chart summarizing 13 "want-to-know" items for the trail: its length, approximate time needed for the trip, a difficulty rating, typical terrain and trail conditions, blazes, water supply, area vegetation, trail highlights, maintaining organizations, sources of maps/guides/contact information, and trailhead directions.

The trails are divided into seven geographical regions, with a map for each region showing the counties and general layouts and locations of the trails there. For each of the 37 trails, another map shows the local roads, towns, creeks, parks, and potential campsites and vistas. The narratives are sufficiently detailed that backpacker armed with this book would be able to save the purchase of many individual trail guides and maps, though these would offer more in-depth information on the history, geology, or other particulars.

This book is a great guide for planning backpacking ventures of appropirate duration, difficulty, and location in the Keystone state. I most recently backpacked the Bucktail Path and found Jeff's summary to be quite on-target. It should be in every Pennsylvania backpacker's library.
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jmitch does it again!!!
Written by the Pennsylvania native, "Backpacking Pennsylvania, 37 Great Hikes" has now established Mitchell's books as the most current and definitive guide series for hiking and backpacking throughout Pennsylvania. Jeff Mitchell's dusty boots had already covered new ground when he wrote "Hiking the Endless Mountains" - the first hiking book to explore the beautiful forests and creeks of Pennsylvania's Endless Mountains. In "Backpacking Pennsylvania", Jeff travels beyond the Allegheny Plateaus to provide concise and well-written trail descriptions. Just enough information is provided for each trail system and Mitchell leaves it to the reader to put his book down and to just start hiking!

Jeff Mitchell's Preface in "Backpacking Pennsylvania" is a righteous testamony to those special places which are rapidly disappearing in the 21st Century. "By respectfully visiting and experiencing these places, we can appreciate and protect them" and "Backpacking reintroduces people not only to nature, but also to each other".

Excellent Intro to PA's Surprising Outdoor Opportunities
I'm a native of the state who has been seriously hiking and backpacking for years, and I'm still continually amazed by the variety and extensiveness of Pennsylvania's long-distance hiking trails. Yes it's possible, in "industrialized" Pennsylvania of all places, to hike for days without seeing a single other person, and outdoor enthusiasts from throughout the Northeast should be more familiar with the Pennsylvania backpacking experience. Amid the state's surprisingly remote and wild areas are dozens of trails that exceed 20 miles in length, and several that surpass 100 miles. There is far more to Pennsylvania backpacking than the famous Appalachian Trail, which Jeff Mitchell accurately describes as one of the least interesting trails in the state. This book is not meant to be a true guide for any of the trails described, but summarizes the long-distance hiking opportunities available. Therefore, unless you really know what you're doing, following trails with this book will be difficult given its abbreviated travelogues and very non-detailed maps, so don't try to do an extensive trip *only* with this book. Detailed trail guides and/or maps are usually available elsewhere.

What makes this book a real winner is an outstanding introduction concerning various backpacking issues and challenges, and excellent geographical info for each trail described, especially in terms of trail conditions, locations of trailheads, and contact information. I have completed several of Pennsylvania's long-distance trails, especially in the central and north-central regions of the state, and given Mitchell's knowledgeable and accurate writing I can attest that he has either hiked these trails himself or has talked extensively with people who have. For this reason I am confident about his descriptions of the trails I haven't yet tackled, and you should be too. So if you're in Pennsylvania but are unaware of the adventures in store, this book is an outstanding introduction to our vast backpacking opportunities. [~doomsdayer520~].

Related products:
click image or link for details on these Pennsylvania travel books.

	Hiking the Endless Mountains: Exploring the Wilderness of Northeast Pennsylvania
	Pennsylvania Waterfalls: A Guide For Hikers And Photographers